Multi-sensory learning

Kids learn so much better when they touch, taste, smell, feel and hear.  I try to incorporate as many of the five senses into our lessons as possible.  Here, we're learning about the lungs.  We saw a video, read a book, drew a picture and now they're blowing bubbles to feel the air going out of their lungs.

We used balloons to illustrate how the air sacks in the lungs fill up and deflate.  

Home Stomach Experiment!

We've been studying physiology this year and its probably one of the boys favorite subjects.  Today we learned about the stomach.  First, we read a book with pictures and talked about how it worked.  Then we drew a picture of the stomach (the boys drew their favorite foods inside the stomach).



Then we really had fun and made our own "stomach" from a plastic bag.  They put in some different foods: bread, cracker, cereal and jelly bean.  We mixed in the "stomach acid" (lemon juice) and they squished it up to act like the stomach breaking down the food.  Here's a video about it:

We'll let the bags sit on the kitchen counter for 24 hrs and see the results of our experiment tomorrow!

What is liberated life learning?

"I hate school!"

            "I never learn anything!"

"How is this going to help me on the real world?"

We have all children say things like that; we may remember feeling the same way ourselves.   I was surprised, however, when my kids started saying that after several months of us homeschooling.

My number one goal as a home educator is to instill the love of learning in my children.   When children are excited and interested,  learning comes naturally!   That's when the magic happens!   We have fun and they get so much out of it.   Developing the love of learning early on life will encourage a future life full of eager learning seeking.   Their education won't end on graduation day. 

 

So when I started hearing similar complaints from my children about our homeschool lessons I decided it was time for a change.   Up to that point,  we'd been strictly following a curriculum.   Mostly it was workbooks and lectures.    I decided to try something radically different.  Because I want to fuel my children's natural desires to learn about things they are interested in, I decided to let them set the curriculum that week.   We'd spend one day covering a topic they wanted to know more about.   We'd integrate that topic into the other subjects.

My six year old said he wanted to learn about pandas.   So,  we checked out a library book which we read together.   Then we watched a couple sorry documentaries online to learn more.   We drew pictures of pandas and wrote a short story.   We made pandas using cotton balls and glue and practiced counting how many pieces of bamboo the panda ate .  We still covered reading,  language arts, math and art,  but the kids were so much more excited about it!

We did the same thing in the weeks since with trains,  volcanoes,  race cars,  gummy worms,  chicks and motorcycles.   I am so encouraged!   I want to share this unconventional approach and see what other ideas are out there!   Please share any tips or suggestions you have!  

Let's liberate learning!

Seed starting adventures

I'm desperate for color in my yard this year but wanted our limited budget to get us the most amount of flowers and plants possible so we decided to turn our house into a make-shift greenhouse and start some seeds indoors.   The kids and I made a homeschool project out of it.   We planted lupines, petunias,  snapdragons, and foxglove in seed starting kits purchased at our local hardware store.   Then I got the idea to make our own more inexpensively using plastic cups with holes cut into the bottom inside of paper bowls.  

I also heard you could put the seeds right onto a plate with a wet paper towel coveted by plastc wrap to hasten germination.   Now, we are tracking the results of our "experiment."  Hopefully we'll have a yard the Queen would envy!

Chick day!

An example of home-school centered around children's interests.

Why I made this Blog

Unconventional.  Radical.  Strange.  Bizarre...?  Yes, even that.

Some people cringe at these words.  I'm hungry for them.  I'm tired of the common place.  I'm tired of the same, same old, going nowhere that I see in my life and in the lives of so many around me.  I'm sick of the lack of education in this country.  I'm tired of the government handing out prescriptions: how we're supposed to learn, what our kids are supposed to be taught, what foods we're supposed to eat and how they're supposed to be grown and processed... and on and on.

I'm not going to sit back and let life happen to me.  I'm going to take charge.  I'm going to do what I feel is best for me and my family, regardless of what anyone else thinks.  Being a mom of five has taught me one thing, time is short.  My children are growing too quickly.  My body is changing too fast as I near the inevitable "30."  I know there is a better way out there.  I'm not afraid to find it.  I'm excited and energized by the possibilities.  I'm an author, a nutritarian, a recent home-schooler, and most importantly, a mom who is determined to give my children the best life possible.

THIS IS THE TIME TO LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST!  We have every opportunity before us to be the healthiest, wisest and most motivated people in history!  Join me on my journey to find the "strange," to try the "unusual," to enliven our minds, our taste buds, our bodies to a whole new approach to life!

Let the journey begin....